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On our last night at the JW Marriott, we decided to drive to Manuel Antonio for a 2 night stay instead of heading back to San Jose. I emailed a handful of hotels around 11pm hoping to find availability at one. While on the road, the front desk emailed me that they had availability. No need to provide any other information, they had a room reserved for me once we arrived. We missed the initial turn because we thought it was on the main road. You actually make a left off the main road onto this quiet little street. As you drive up the hill, La Mansion Inn comes into view. At the highest point of the hill, this hotel offers the most stunning views of water on either sides of the cove. The location was perfect because you were away from all the traffic going to Manuel Antonio but still a quick drive away.

We checked in quickly and a staff member gave us a tour of the place. The entire hotel is so unique and fun, with lots of fun little nooks that add so much charm to the hotel. The pool area is gorgeous. Stunning vistas surrounded by foliage. We loved coming for an early evening swim and then hopping in the jacuzzi.

They didn't tell us at check in but they upgraded us to Penthouse #1 and it was an AMAZING surprise! Views, views, and more VIEWS! 2 bathrooms, 2 couches, 2 decks, a dining room table with a chandelier above it and more VIEWS! The bedroom has windows that run the entire length of the walls. We would lay in bed in the morning and watch the hawks swoop by. It was breathtaking. I loved sitting on the balcony in the morning and just soaking in the view of the Manuel Antonio beach. The main bathroom was huge with a giant jacuzzi tub. I loved the smell of the lotions so much I took them home with me. There were 2 different wireless networks from the room- 1 worked perfectly and the other didn't work at all. I would've been perfectly content staying in the room the entire stay, it was that awesome of a room.

Breakfast was very good, I loved the iguana that would sit there every morning hoping for some scraps. The perfect start before taking their shuttle service down to the beach. On the way down, the driver stopped at a tree to show us a mama sloth and her baby. So cute! We got room service one night because we had to take advantage of the dining area and that was very good and very reasonably priced.

The stay is not complete without a visit to the Bat Cave Bar. It is awesome! If you look in the rock cracks, you will see little crabs just kickin it. We didn't see any bats there although everynight there was one up near a window when we walked up to our room. All of these things just added to the charm of the hotel.

The day we were leaving, we checked out and put our bags in storage so we could go down to Playa Biesanz for a quick swim. We saw a bunch of monkeys including 2 babies on their mother's back. One monkey hopped down to the ground and walked right up to this gentleman to pick up a piece of fruit that was on the ground near his foot. The perfect end to a perfect stay.

Great rooms, great staff, great amenities, great service, stunning views and tons of charm. Throw in that the owner is a philanthropist and gives a lot to the local communities and you can't help but fall in love with the place. It isn't just a hotel, it is your Mansion away from home. Can't wait to return!!!

Room Tip: Penthouse #1 is pure perfection!

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Stayed March 2013, traveled as a couple

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La_Mansion_Inn1, Owner at La Mansion Inn, responded to this review,
April 14, 2013

I am so glad that you enjoyed your stay so much and it seems like you had the opportunity to take full advantage of everything we have to offer here in the hotel and allow it to make the most of your vacation. As every year goes by we are always looking for new and out of the box ways to continue developing the property and creating that perfect environment for your guests. It would be a pleasure to see you again here at La Mansion Inn the next time you choose to visit Costa Rica.

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The Best Staff, Gorgeous Accomodations, A Fun and Exciting Place to Stay, Great Restaurant's, Great Food, Beautiful Pool Area, Magnificent Scenery, and just likeI said, "It Just Doesn't Get Better Than This!"

Room Tip: In my opinion, there's no such thing as a bad room. But our preference is generally
the rooms...

My husband and I stayed at La Mansion for 4 nights. The hotel is nicely situated within the Manuel Antonio area. The hotel is perched high on a cliff, which offers sweeping views of the Pacific and Manuel Antonio. Upon checking in, the hotel upgraded us to a better penthouse room. Also, we arrived by rental car from Adobe and needed to return it to Quepos. Within minutes, the front desk arranged for the rental car to be picked up at the hotel instead of us having to return it. After having spent several hours in the car, it was great to have this taken care of. We stayed in Penthouse #4. The room is spacious with a "living room area" that has a sofa and TV and a bedroom area where the bed is. There is also a table and chairs for 2 should you want to eat in the room. The thing that makes the room are the windows that span the length of the walls allowing for the amazing ocean and forest views. The bathroom was large, with a large shower and tub. The shower did splash out a bit onto the floor causing us to have to put towels on the ground around the tub. However, there never was any flooding as commented on by other reviewers. The room also had a balcony with 2 lounge chairs. The room overall was really great. However, there were a couple of kinks like no wi-fi in the room (works great in the lobby though) and once or twice where the cold water seemed to be lacking (The water seemed to correct itself after a little bit.). I also wish the room had a full length mirror in addition to the mirror in the room. However, none of these things had a negative impact on our stay.The pool area is stunning and I concur with other reviewers who said they could sit there all day and soak in the scenery. The swim-up bar was always staffed during its open hours and was a great feature while lounging poolside. The hotel staff was very helpful in booking tours, arranging taxis and helping us with our bags. The breakfasts and lunches were good and included in our room rate. We chose to eat out for dinner with many good restaurants a short taxi ride away. Overall, the staff at the front desk, the bar and food areas were always very friendly and helpful. It was clear they wanted us to have a great stay (and we did!). The hotel offers free shuttles to the beach, although we never used them. There were also a few sightings of monkeys, iguanas, a sloth and a crab on or in viewing distance from the property. If staying in the Manuel Antonio area, La Mansion is a great choice in accommodations, location and service. I would definitely recommend this hotel to friends and family.

Room Tip: Depending on which room you stay in, there could be several staircases and hallways to walk down in...

We stayed at La Mansion Inn during the second weekend of March, and enjoyed it very much. It's a small hotel, but every room seems to have a great view of the ocean. If you head up to the pool and patio area, you'll see 360 degrees of spectacular views of the area.

A couple of downsides, for me at least: They don't have a buffet breakfast, instead you order off the menu, and it's all complementary. Also, if you have a rental car, the driveway and small parking area are very hard to maneuver. In fact, the whole Quepos/Manuel Antonio area seems to have a cramped feel.

Otherwise, the staff is very attentive and the rooms were very clean.

Room Tip: We had a ground floor room but still had an excellent view of the ocean.

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Stayed March 2013, traveled as a couple

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La_Mansion_Inn1, Owner at La Mansion Inn, responded to this review,
March 26, 2013

Thank you for your comments both positive and constructive. we are always interested in the feedback of our guests as our goal is to make decisions that manage to please the majority of tourists that pass through our hotel. As I'm sure you are aware it is always impossible to please everybody, however we love the challenge of trying!

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My boyfriend and I recently spend a week and a half at La Mansion Inn. We are from Canada, and have previously travelled extensively through Central America and Costa Rica. Overall we both loved it here. We arrived late one evening, so unfortunately did not receive a welcome tour. We stayed in one of the deluxe rooms here. We had an AMAZING view of the Manuel Antonio Beach, and tons of space to relax outside with our own private lawn and covered deck area- perfect for reading and relaxing. Our room was quite spacious with a comfortable king-sized bed. Bathroom was also nice and big. Air conditioner worked well-- definitely need it in this climate if you are not use to the hot weather!! We also had a small fridge that was alright, but a little bit smelly and leaky. The pool area was quite nice- we usually went in the morning and had the whole pool to ourselves! Perfect for suntanning and reading. There is also a jacuzzi- which we used after it had cooled down in the evenings (but the temp of the water is not too hot)-- a bit messy with leaves from the surrounding plants, but it was nice to have. My favorite part of the hotel was the amazing skydeck near the pool area--- wow!! Amazing views and a great place to relax. It was never crowded. It is also a nice place to watch the sunrise. In terms of the food- breakfast is included. We tried many things on the menu and all were delicious!! My favorite was the gallo pinto. The waiters were very friendly, and tried to remember how you wanted your coffee. Again, the views were stunning!! We didn't try the dinners-- we wanted to explore more authentic places in Quepos and Manuel Antonio area, and we had a car, so it was easy to get out. Wifi is available all over the hotel- did not really work in our room, but excellent speed outside as well as in the breakfast area, so great for catching up on emails and such.

The hotel is close to a smaller beach (Playa Biesanz) about a 15 min walk. There is hardly anyone else there, but it was quite rocky. You are also a short drive to the main beach, which is fantastic! There is also a shuttle that runs a few times per day starting at 9 am, but we found it easier to just drive ourselves, as we could have more flexibility. You are quite close to everything, but the road that runs through Quepos to Manuel Antonio is still about a 10-15 min walk up a very winding road- that we felt was a bit dangerous to be walking on in the dark at night in case a car couldn't see us. We did have a rental car for the time there, but I think many people just used cabs and had no trouble. You are very close to many activities- surfing, white water rafting, sunset sailing tours, etc. We booked these tours ourselves after doing some research on which companies we wanted to use, but the hotel was helpful in answering our questions and such.

I did not see any monkeys here during our stay, but did see a sloth and many lizards!

Now onto customer service... Overall, 95% of the staff working here were FANTASTIC! So helpful, always asked us how our trip was going, offering directions, ordering in food when the hotel restaurant was closed for the night etc. HOWEVER, there was one gentleman who worked at the front desk who was always quite rude towards us. He would give us one-word answers when we asked questions (he spoke perfectly fluent English; there was no language barrier), and scowled at us when we asked if we could have beach towels. He also asked for our keys the minute we walked in the door one evening (no greeting, no hello, no hola, nothing), and when we asked why, he said "To fix the awful parking". Unfortunately, he was working at the front desk the morning we checked out. Our travel plans had changed due to a cancelled flight, so we had to leave to San Jose a day earlier than originally planned. We knew that we would have to forfeit the money paid for the night, but we had no choice as our flight was very early in the AM. We told several of the other workers 4 nights prior that we planned to check out a day early, and even our sever at breakfast knew that it was our last day. When we got down to the front desk (after this worker watched my boyfriend and I struggle to carry our suitcases down the stairs), he said sternly, "Why are you leaving today, you didn't inform us, you are supposed to leave tomorrow." We are unsure why he was so angry at us, as we didn't even ask for a refund for our night (as it was booked through expedia), and we explained this to him. Then, he gave us a receipt for the extra taxes that are not included in the breakfast (you must pay the service tax, which works out to be about $2 a day)- they give you a receipt daily and you simply sign it and pay at the end. We discovered that there were a couple days in which we were charged an "extra tip" in the amount of 4 USD in addition the regular tax (hospedaje). We did not put this on our bill (there is an extra space if you wish to add this extra tip). So we were a bit disturbed that this may have been added by one of the breakfast servers AFTER we had signed it. When we asked about it at checkout, we were abruptly told, "It's an extra tip. You added it. You probably forgot." We weren't prepared to argue over a few dollars, so we let it go. We were also asked to fill out a paper review of the hotel on checkout, so I did this while my boyfriend loaded up all of our luggage into our car. NO OFFER from this worker to help load our many suitcases or even an offer to hold open the door. I had the feeling the worker was looking over my review as I filled it out. Then, after I finished it, I handed it to him, and told him that I really enjoyed my stay here, and that the hotel was excellent. He frowned at me, and said "I need your credit card again". NO "thank you for staying, hope you return" that we received from the other staff.

So overall, we had a great stay here, but it is unfortunate we had such a bad check-out experience as this really tainted our stay at La Mansion Inn.

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

La_Mansion_Inn1, Owner at La Mansion Inn, responded to this review,
March 28, 2013

My heartfelt apologies for the terrible check-out experience and just as an FYI, I did convene a meeting immediately to discuss the 5% of your constructive criticism with the entire front desk staff. As you can see by other comments these are not the usual check-out procedures that we have gotten accustom to here at the La Mansion Inn. Our front desk staff usually receives commendations and even some raves for their professionalism. As a little compensation for this embarrassment, allow me to invite your back to the La Mansion for a complimentary two-night stay and to show you that we have dealt with your observations effectively and professionally. There is no excuse for this behaviour on the part of my staff.

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Amazing views from this hotel. We could just sit on the balcony or in the pool for hours. We booked specials through trip advisor and got a deep discount with breakfast included. The staff was very friendly and when we found out that they threw away soda bottles that we were saving for our daughter that collects them, they dug through their trash to retrieve them. Loved the service at check in with the tour and fruit drinks by the pool. I didn't have much fun trying to drive our car up and down their tight windy driveway, but it was well worth the pain. Would absolutely go there again.

Stayed September 2012, traveled as a couple

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Before I begin to tell you how spectacular this place is, I must apologize for not specifically thanking each person by name. I did write it down but the paper got wet. Hence, to the staff at the front desk, the bell boys, the restaurant staff, the cleaning staff, the pool people, housekeeping. To all the staff, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. You were critical to making our stay so utterly magnificent.We went the end of February for my sons wedding. We were 13 people plus a toddler and an enfant. We covered the age rainbow in ages from 5 months to 86 years. Everyone had a wonderful time. Our group would walk around saying "we're clearly in heaven". Yes, the beach is beautiful, our rooms spectacular, the views, magnificent, the wildlife, restaurant, walks, everything simply tantalized every atom in your body. If you chose to look at the view, read a book, engage in activity, you were guaranteed a wonderful, blissful experience.Would I go back, OH YESSSSS!!!There is nothing more that you could ask for, there is nothing more that you would want.Given the wide age range, we were expecting some challenges. Not even. The only hurdle we had was that our travel agent neglected to tell the hotel that we would require a crib. Since the hotel is not exactly geared to children, the called and called to get us a crib. Within an hour, we had one in the room, set up with baby sleeping soundly.The staff here could write the book highlighting Customer Service. They eat it, breath it and live it. Friendly, efficient, courteous, professional. They are a perfect example of people who take pride in their work to make sure that the customer has the best possible experience.Again, i apologize for not remembering everones names. To the manager and owner, you have a lot to be proud of - your staff reflects outstanding levels of customer service.Now, the rooms. - okay, it comes down to budget, either way, you will not be disappointed. We had 4 regular rooms which were huge and all had their own private garden patio. We also had Penthouse 4 which included a glass wall that over looked lush vegetation and the pacific ocean. In addition, room #12 (i think). Recently renovated and geared to the needs of someone in a wheelchair ---OMG, chandeliers, dining room with normal size fridge, washroom the size of some bedrooms, balcony overlooking vegetation and a the entrance (my room). Well WOW!!!Now, the patio. This is where the wedding took place. side - side Pacific Ocean, Front back, flowers, wildlife, lush colorful vegetation under a sun screen to protect our delicate skin. To put this place in simple terms, a must for your bucket list.Everyone was very very happy - thank you to everyone for making our stay so unforgettable.

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

La_Mansion_Inn1, Owner at La Mansion Inn, responded to this review,
March 26, 2013

I would just like to let you know that Trip Advisor Reviews usually do not make me cry, however this one did. These are the type of reviews that I hope that every small hotel owner receives because these type of comments makes being in the difficult hospitality business completely worth while. I look forward to seeing you again soon at La mansion Inn.

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This 5 star ocean-view hotel is located only 2 kilometers from the biologically diverse Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica. Complete with roof-top sky lounge featuring 360 degree views and a genuine Cave Bar hidden inside the heart of the hotel, La Mansion Inn is truly unique. Over time, national and international celebrities have stayed at La Mansion Inn, and we warmly invite all guests who stay to leave as a friend....more less

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Also Known As:

La Mansion Hotel Manuel Antonio National Park

Hotel La Mansion

La Mansion Inn Costa Rica/Manuel Antonio National Park

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